SSH Terminal Access

[elevatecore]

Hi, I just signed up for hosting and checking for SSH Terminal access, but the dashboard shows it is forbidden. How to enable?

Thanks

Kumar

[KazVee]

Hello! On hosting accounts, secure shell access (SSH) is disabled for security reasons. However, it is possible to run jailed shell commands using Plesk's Scheduled Tasks (cron jobs) feature. In many cases, SSH is not actually necessary.

If you let us know what command you want to run, and we'll be happy to investigate other ways to accomplish the same task without SSH.

If you absolutely require SSH access, you will need a VPS. We offer a range of VPS plans, and a 10% discount when you pay for 6 months upfront. You can view the VPS plans we offer here: https://heliohost.org/vps/

[elevatecore]

I wanted to know the details of the server, installed software version, disk space usage in my space, etc. like

uname -os

ldd --version

python --version

node -v

du -sh *
du -sh .[^.]*

Edited 2 hours ago by elevatecore

[KazVee]

You can view how much space (out of the 1000 MB) is being used by checking inside Plesk > Statistics from the left side menu. Please note: Plesk doesn't recalculate in real time, so there's a delay between uploading and the statistics reflecting what's in your account. 

Node versions available on the Tommy server are: 23, 22, 21, 20, 18, 16. 
You can view them by logging into Plesk and going to: Websites & Domains > Get Started > Node.js button > Click on the Node.js Version value to view other versions of node available. 

A word of caution about Node: Node apps often require a lot of server resources, and exceeding the account load limits will cause your user account to be suspended for high server usage. You can keep an eye on your account load here: https://heliohost.org/dashboard/load/

I'll escalate this thread to the root admins for your OS-related questions.

[elevatecore]

Thanks for the info. This helps to some extent. I don't want run node app as service on any dedicated port. I want to execute a short-lived javascript like node getuser.js under (php shell_exec / popen) but I see my php configuration: disable_functions:opcache_get_status,exec,passthru,proc_nice,proc_open,shell_exec,system,popen,pcntl_exec

I don't want to run any service forever, just use node based code to run per request and exit. How can I do that?

Thanks in advance.

[KazVee]

PHP functions such as proc_open(), exec(), popen(), etc. are disabled on our shared hosting servers for security reasons. If you need these, you will need to get a VPS. 

Can you provide more details about why you want to run these per-request scripts, and what you hope to accomplish with them? This will help us determine if there's an alternative method you can use that would be permitted on the shared hosting servers. 

[elevatecore]

I want to generate some mock data for my demo/workshop using node (javascipt) json. I don't want to run a dedicated node+express server wasting server resources like memory/cpu. These mock api calls will be called only during a workshop/demo otherwise there is no need of this service. So I have written a simple javascript to generate random json payload based on the request type. that I want to execute through simple php-node.php router where I will use shell_exec to run the node script on demand and it ends the request. Want to keep it simple and efficient on-demand execution instead of running a service forever on a different port. that causes CORS issue as well. Do you have a better alternate solution?

[Krydos]

You could just use CGI or PHP. Can you give an example of the json payload you want it to send, and where you want it to be sent to?

[elevatecore]

I know it can be done with PHP/perl, I stopped coding in PHP/Perl for more than a decade now. I wanted to use JS tech stack to demonstrate for the workshop that I conduct, And I have many light-weight JS APIs, that don't want rewrite in PHP/Perl/Python now. BTW, what version of python is available? I prefer to use 3.12+

---

const sleep = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

const randomCPU = () => parseFloat((Math.random() * 100).toFixed(1));
const randomStatus = (cpu) => cpu > 80 ? "warning" : "healthy";

export default async function* serve(request) {
  let length = parseInt(request.query_string?._length || 10, 10);
  if (isNaN(length) || length < 1) length = 1;
  if (length > 100) length = 100;

  for (let i = 1; i <= length; i++) {
    await sleep(100);
    const cpu = randomCPU();
    yield {
      chunk_id: i,
      event: "telemetry_pulse",
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      metrics: {
        cpu_utilization: cpu,
        memory_free_bytes: Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000) + 10000000,
        status: randomStatus(cpu)
      },
      engine: "ES Modules (.mjs)"
    };
  }
}

Just FYR. This JS generates max 100 dynamic streaming records, which will be consumed in browser UI to plot a graph or table or list...

Edited 7 minutes ago by elevatecore

[Krydos]

Tommy, the server you're on currently, has Python 3.9 and Python 3.12. If you upgrade to Morty https://heliohost.org/dashboard/move/ Python 3.14 is available as well.